Columbia College Today

Jeremy Fingerman ’83, president and CEO of R.A.B. Food Group, which owns kosher brand Manischewitz, has been in the food industry since graduating from business school in 1988.

PHOTO: Daniel Valentin

Jeremy Fingerman ’83 calls himself “the king of matzo and gefilte fish.” As president and CEO of R.A.B. Food Group in Secaucus, N.J., he heads one of the largest specialty food companies in the country, one that grew out of (and still includes) the kosher brand Manischewitz.

Fingerman, a Cincinnati native, always has kept kosher but worked many years in the mainstream food industry. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1988, he worked in a marketing position at General Mills in Minneapolis, focusing on breakfast cereals. After meeting his wife, Gail, in Minneapolis (the couple have two children, Zalman, 8, and Esther, 6), he was recruited to Campbell’s in Camden, N.J., where he spent 12 years in the soup business.

From 1997–2000, Fingerman headed Campell’s soup operation in Australia and traveled throughout Asia. “I had a fantastic experience, I loved it,” Fingerman says. “We experienced tremendous growth professionally and personally during our time ‘Down Under.’ Despite many obstacles, we successfully turned around the performance of Campbell’s Australian business unit. And being immersed in such different lands and cultures challenged us to explore new adventures, in Australasia and beyond. We feel fortunate to have had such an experience. I would go back tomorrow.”

Fingerman returned to lead the company’s U.S. soup division, the largest and most profitable of the company. During that time, the company launched its first kosher soup, Vegetarian Vegetable. “It was fun to be able to enjoy my own products at home,” Fingerman says of the kosher soup.

When Fingerman joined Campell’s, he worked on the Chunky soup line. At his first inspection, the product being reviewed was Split Pea & Ham. “All eyes were on me. I was the new guy,” he recalls. Although his boss knew that he was kosher, he hadn’t yet broadcast it. “It wasn’t the occasion to announce to everyone that I’m kosher and can’t eat this.” Instead of a taste test, Fingerman stirred the soup with his spoon and asked if there was a way to make the chunks bigger. The suggestion resulted in the “Now Even Chunkier” product, and sales grew more than 10 percent, Fingerman says, without including more ham but by cutting it differently.

Fingerman seemed destined for success, even as a student. “Our entire group of friends always thought Jeremy would become a senator or the first Jewish President of the United States,” says Dr. David Kriegel ’83. “He’s affable, witty, quick and had a political inclination. In the end, he applied his abilities to business rather than politics.” (Fingerman took a year off before graduation to work in Washington, D.C., as a legislative assistant for Rep. Bill Gradison (R-Ohio).)

Fingerman, an English literature major, was involved with Columbia Student Enterprises. He briefly ran Columbia Bagel Boys as a junior with Kriegel and four others. The venture delivered H&H bagels on campus, but, as Kriegel recalled, “At the end of six weeks we calculated our earnings and each of us had earned $1.” So it was shuttered.

Senior year brought a more profitable venture: Fingerman, Kriegel and Andy Spitzer ’83 sold mugs and t-shirts proclaiming the Class of 1983, the last class before the College went coed, “100% Male.” While selling the items on the Low Library steps in the spring of senior year, Fingerman and Kriegel were photographed by a USA Today photographer and the shot landed on the front page. (Spitzer, who Kriegel describes as the hardest worker of the three, was making a run for more mugs when the photographer came by, so missed being in the shot.)

In 2005, Fingerman joined R.A.B. Food Group as president and CEO. The company’s marquee brand, Manischewitz, was started 120 years ago in Cincinnati. “When I got the call from the recruiter, I said, ‘Wow, that’s a perfect fit! Kosher, Cincinnati … ’” Fingerman says. He now works from an office overlooking midtown Manhattan.

The company is focusing on updating product flavors and expanding offerings to appeal to mainstream as well as kosher customers. On Fingerman’s watch, the company has developed three kinds of chocolate Tam Tam Crackers, for example. He engineered the acquisition of one of R.A.B’s largest competitors, Rokeach, and initiated the first national kosher cooking competition. The company is planning the first new matzo bakery in the United States in 75 years.

Despite all his success in the 24 years since graduation, Fingerman jests, “I haven’t made it to the front page of USA Today again.”

Shira Boss-Bicak ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA is the author of Green with Envy: A Whole New Way to Look at Financial (Un)Happiness. Learn more at www.shiraboss.com.

ALUMNI UPDATES

Jeremy Fingerman ’83: King of Matzo and Gefilte Fish

By Shira Boss-Bicak ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA